Luke 17 - My Brother's Keeper

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Luke 17

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” The first human question recorded in the Bible (Genesis 4:9)

Sin is solely a personal and individual decision.

Or is it?

Eve took the bite of the fruit with Adam standing right next to her. Her partner. Her husband. Why didn’t he stop her? And not only did he not stop her, he grabbed the fruit from Eve’s extended hand and also took a bite.

While we don’t make another persons’ decision for them to sin, our influence is more significant than we may think. And Jesus takes this very seriously. On the heels of the story of the rich man and Lazarus – the finality of judgment and eternity – Jesus is stern about causing another to stumble.

We live in a fallen world. Yes, temptations to sin will surely come, Jesus acknowledges this. But woe to the one through whom they come.

“Pay attention to yourselves!” Jesus says.

Temptations are everywhere; don’t add to it. Don’t make it even harder on others.

Do we encourage those lies? Do we cause another to gossip? Do we drag friends into our sinful endeavors? Do we jump on the comparison and criticizing bandwagon when a friend confides about a disagreement with another? Do we promote books, movies, music that inspire sinful behavior, all tacitly condoning it? Are we a stumbling block to those weaker in certain areas?

Jesus says don’t do it! In fact, He says it would be better to have a huge weight hung around your neck and be cast in the sea (ummm…not fun!) than to be the cause of temptation that leads to a brother or sister in Christ sinning.

“Pay attention to yourselves!” Jesus says.

And this spills into our reaction to fellow Christians sinning. The Pharisees took sin very seriously. They sought it out. And then they shunned, disowned, and even stoned the offender.

Jesus has another plan…to seek repentance and restoration; wholeness. If a brother sins against us and repents, we are to forgive them. Not ask questions, retaliate, seek proof of repentance, or any other condition. We are to forgive. And if they do it again and again and again – even in the same day – Jesus says to forgive them if they repent.

Hard words. So hard the apostles next say to Jesus, “Increase our faith!”

“If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and plated in the sea,’ and it would obey you,” Jesus answers.

Even little faith in a big God is what we need. We don’t need to muster up more faith. We need to have our faith fully planted in the right place.

Mustard seed faith and the power of a BIG God can help us resist temptation, encourage our fellow brothers and sisters to resist as well, and to forgive when everything in us is fighting it.

“Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things which may build up another.” (Romans 14:19)

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